A Yemeni family I knew had a lot of this: big age differences between the spouses ages, sometimes husbands were as much as 34 years older than their wives.
Their reason made sense: in Yemen, a 14 year old was more favorable to marry than a 20 year old because a 14 year old can potentially give birth to 6 more children than the 20 year old assuming they both stop having children by their late 20's. This was very convenient if the family had a plot of land to tend to, instead of hiring workers, the family could work on it and reap their own provisions.
Since younger females were more desired for marriage due to the above explanation, potential bride's families often requested higher dowry's. Often, the only men in the community who could afford the higher dowry's were the older men.
This is what was explained to me. Sounds like it works for them.
In urban parts of the world, there are a thousand explanations but it could be as basic as having something to do with how we as male and female humans are biologically wired.
A Yemeni family I knew had a lot of this: big age differences between the spouses ages, sometimes husbands were as much as 34 years older than their wives.
Their reason made sense: in Yemen, a 14 year old was more favorable to marry than a 20 year old because a 14 year old can potentially give birth to 6 more children than the 20 year old assuming they both stop having children by their late 20's. This was very convenient if the family had a plot of land to tend to, instead of hiring workers, the family could work on it and reap their own provisions.
Since younger females were more desired for marriage due to the above explanation, potential bride's families often requested higher dowry's. Often, the only men in the community who could afford the higher dowry's were the older men.
This is what was explained to me. Sounds like it works for them.
In urban parts of the world, there are a thousand explanations but it could be as basic as having something to do with how we as male and female humans are biologically wired.